JD Vance Calls Out Zohran Mamdani’s July 4 Post: “Who The Hell Does He Think He Is?”

Last Updated:July 10, 2025, 01:24 IST

JD Vance criticizes NYC mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani’s July 4 post, says it lacks gratitude for America.

JD Vance and Zohran Mamdani

US Vice President JD Vance took aim at New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani, criticizing the Democratic socialist’s Independence Day message for lacking what he described as basic gratitude toward the United States. Speaking at the Claremont Institute’s Statesmanship Award Dinner in San Diego, JD Vance marked the nation’s 249th Independence Day by contrasting the significance of the holiday with Zohran Mamdani’s comments.

“Today is July 5th, 2025, which means, as all of you know, that yesterday we celebrated the 249th anniversary of the birth of our nation," JD Vance said, adding, “Now, the person who wishes to lead our largest city had, according to multiple media reports, never once publicly mentioned America’s Independence Day in earnest. But when he did so this year, this is what he said, and this is an actual quote."

JD Vance then read from Zohran Mamdani’s July 4th post, which said, “America is beautiful, contradictory, unfinished. I am proud of our country, even as we constantly strive to make it better."

To that, JD Vance responded, “There’s no gratitude in those words. No sense of owing something to this land and the people who turned its wilderness into the most powerful nation on earth."

“I wonder," he continued, “has he ever read the letters from boy soldiers in the Union Army to parents and sweethearts that they’d never see again? Has he ever visited the grave site of a loved one who gave their life to build the kind of society where his family could escape racial theft and racial violence?"

Then, addressing Zohran Mamdani directly, JD Vance asked, “Has he ever looked in the mirror and recognized that he might not be alive were it not for the generosity of a country he dares to insult on its most sacred day? Who the hell does he think that he is?"

JD Vance also referenced Zohran Mamdani’s background, noting that his family fled Uganda during Idi Amin’s regime.

“Zohran Mamdani’s father fled Uganda when the tyrant Idi Amin decided to ethnically cleanse his nation’s Indian population," JD Vance said, adding, “Mamdani’s family fled violent racial hatred, only for him to come to this country- a country built by people he never knew, overflowing with generosity to his family, offering a haven from the kind of violent ethnic conflict that is commonplace in world history, but it is not commonplace here- and he dares on our 249th anniversary to congratulate it by paying homage to its ‘incompleteness,’ and to its, as he calls it, ‘contradiction.’"

Washington D.C., United States of America (USA)

News world JD Vance Calls Out Zohran Mamdani’s July 4 Post: “Who The Hell Does He Think He Is?”